This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2001-52106 filed on Aug. 28, 2001, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc changer, and more particularly, to an optical disc changer adopting a tray transfer unit which is simplified by reducing the number of parts.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, optical disc drives reproduce information recorded on optical discs such as CDs or DVDs, which are optical recording media, by using optical pickup devices. When an optical disc is placed on a tray and loaded in a drive, a drive unit rotates the optical disc. An optical pickup device mounted at the lower end of the tray reproduces data recorded on the optical disc while being transferred in a radial direction of the optical disc.
Since only one optical disc is accommodated on the tray of the optical disc drive, if a user wishes to reproduce a plurality of optical discs, the user must inconveniently repeat actions including ejecting the tray, placing a new optical disc that the user wishes to reproduce on the tray, and loading the tray in the drive.
To solve the above inconveniences, optical disc changers to selectively reproduce one of a plurality of optical discs accommodated on a tray, so as not to repeatedly change the optical discs, have been developed.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view showing a conventional front loading type optical disc changer to select a desired one of a plurality of optical discs accommodated on a tray and reproduce the selected optical disc by using an optical pickup device. Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional optical disc changer 100 includes a main body 110, a tray 150 installed to be capable of being inserted into the main body 110, a roulette 160 rotatably installed on the tray 150 and where a plurality of optical discs are accommodated, an optical pickup device 120 to read information from a desired one of the optical discs accommodated on the roulette 160, and a damper support unit 131 installed above the optical pickup device 120 to support a damper 130 which clamps the optical discs against the optical pickup device 120.
Also, the optical disc changer 100 includes a tray transfer unit 140 to load or unload the tray 150 in or from the main body 110.
The optical disc changer 100 loads the tray 150 in the main body 110 to perform reproduction by using the optical pickup device 120, or unloads the tray 150 after reproduction by the optical pickup device 120 is completed. Also, there is a need to load or unload the tray 150 while one of the optical discs is selected and being reproduced by using the optical pickup device 120.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a tray transfer unit shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2, illustrates a tray transfer unit 140 of the conventional optical disc changer 100, a drive gear member 141, a tray gear member 142 rotating by selectively being engaged with the drive gear member 141, and a converter gear member 143. A rack gear member 151, having a rack gear formed at both sides thereof, is provided at the bottom surface of the tray 150 so that it engages with the tray gear member 142 and the converter gear member 143 and passes between the tray gear member 142 and the converter gear member 143 as both of these members rotate.
When the tray transfer unit 140 loads or unloads the tray 150, the tray gear member 142 is engaged with the drive gear member 141. When the optical disc is being reproduced while the tray 150 is simultaneously loaded or unloaded, the converter gear member 143 and the drive gear member 141 are engaged with each other.
In the conventional optical disc changer 100, since the converter gear member 143 is additionally used, the cost of manufacturing the optical disc changer 100 increases. Also, to assemble the tray gear member 142, the converter gear member 143, and the rack gear member 151, since an accurate assembly point must be kept, the assembly work is difficult and the number of defective parts increases.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disc changer adopting a tray transfer unit which is simplified by reducing the number of parts.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an optical disc changer comprising a main body, a tray installed in the main body to be capable of sliding, a roulette rotatably installed at the tray and where a plurality of optical discs are accommodated, an optical pickup device to selectively reproduce one of the optical discs accommodated on the roulette, a drive gear member installed at the main body, rotated by being connected to a drive unit, and selectively engaged with a rack gear member formed on the bottom surface of the tray, and a tray gear unit installed adjacent to the drive gear member and having tray gears selectively engaged with the rack gear member and the drive gear.